This blog has been going in some form or other for quite a while now. I don’t often go and look at what I wrote way back when, but today I was looking at an issue and considered what I wrote on the matter.
There has been a lot written on this blog about fruitfulness. Indeed in September 2016 I spent virtually the entire month on a series of writings on the matter. Seven years ago, though, I wrote something on Being Fruitful – give it a read, it will be worth your while. It was fascinating reading what I wrote. Sometimes there’s so much of life and so much that is written that when I go and read something I wrote from years ago, I don’t recognise the writer! On this occasion though, it was fitting to read what I wrote way back then.
In particular I was concerned again with what Jesus says about being the True Vine. Especially the part that refers to Jesus being the only source by which we are able to be and do anything and without Him we can do nothing. It’s an arresting thought, because at times it still seems as though we think we can carry on with life as a Christian doing religious rituals and activities with little thought about how connected we are to the True Vine and how that’s producing fruit.
I still wonder if we would have the courage to honestly consider what it is we’re actually producing corporately as well as individually. I still wonder if we have that discernment to stop what we’re doing to reorient life to be aligned to the flow from the True Vine. I still wonder if we can acknowledge that whatever fruit we’re producing from time to time isn’t really reflecting the nature of the True Vine.
I don’t wonder these things in isolation and I certainly don’t wonder these things accusing others. I wonder these things with a very clear admission on my part that the searchlight of the Spirit starts and ends with me. And then it goes onto us.
Because without Him, we can do nothing.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
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